


Puppet Strings

by WendigoStudios66



Category: Original Work
Genre: Anthropomorphic Ponies (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Character Death, Puppets, grim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:55:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29185134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WendigoStudios66/pseuds/WendigoStudios66
Summary: I stand shakily on my four hooves, my light yellow coat covered in dead plant life of some kind and dirt as I raise a forehoof to rub my throbbing head and brush my messy pure white mane out of my face. As I got my consciousness back, I found myself back in a red sky valley where a puppeteer was killed and something else watching my every move.





	1. The Puppet Strings

“Oh my dear, what on Nibiru are you doing here on the city streets?”  
“I’m broke, I don’t have a home and I don’t have any money. I need help, can you help me please?”  
“I sure can, what is your name dear?”  
“Sunflower Shine.”  
I stand shakily on my four hooves, my light yellow coat covered in dead plant life of some kind and dirt as I raise a forehoof to rub my throbbing head and brush my messy pure white mane out of my face. My hooves were coated in dirt and dead plant life as well, so my face became just as dirty as my body. My eyes stung a little as I opened them only to be greeted by a blurry messy red image that I could barely make out properly. After a few seconds upon discovering this, I took my hoof away from my head as the throbbing started to go away, setting it back on the ground before blinking multiple times rapidly to clear the fogginess in my light blue eyes.  
With each blink, the haze in my eyes started to clear up, giving me more of a better image of what was in front of me. I saw a red sky, a valley and finally a cliff resting at the end of the valley, overlooking the gentle lake that sat below the cliff. I grunted in frustration, brought my hoof back to my temples, shook my head furiously and blinked one more time to clear my blurred senses, this seemed to do the trick as when I reopened my eyes, I finally saw where I was.  
All around me was an endless valley, in all directions: north, south, west and east, it was just a plain grassy valley covered in dark dying grass that blew silently in the dying wind and no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find any trace of anything else but the valley: no flowers, no bugs, no birds, no trees, no nothing minus the odd sky. The sky itself above the valley was a dark red almost as dark as blood with the top tones being shades of dark red and the bottom tones being shades of light red. “So this is where I’m working? Out here in the light of the beautiful sunsets with your puppets?”  
I gave a surprised and frightened eep before backing up a little like I thought I could escape it’s sights, my ears pulling themselves back against my head and flattened like a pancake. I didn’t know why I reacted like this fully but the sight of this sky wasn’t like the skies I had ever seen before, they were usually blue or orange in color not red and certainly not in this shade before. However an idea struck me and made me calm down a little despite it being a little flawed.  
The reason the sky could be a deep red is probably because it was nearing nighttime or rather sunset at that moment which signaled the end of the day. That explanation of the sky being that shade of red made a little sense to me as sunsets were a common thing as I had seen them in action before, I might’ve been grasping at straws at this point since I’ve never seen a sunset like this but I had to do something to keep myself from freaking out even more. Telling myself that the red sky was a sunset and taking deep slow breaths were the two things keeping me sane and thinking logically.  
Once I started to calm down and get back on my hooves, I started to explore around the valley to see if I could find something of interest or anyone else who might be here. However I didn’t see anything else in plain sight minus the valley and the red sky, even though I had never been here before in my life, the place looked familiar to me but I couldn’t quite put my hoof on why. I stopped in my tracks and put a hoof to my chin as I tried to remember why it looked familiar, after a few seconds, I realized why. “Why yes, this is Sunset Valley, a lot of puppeteers come here to perform, isn’t wonderful?” This was the Sunset Valley, a place that was use to be home to the most beautiful sunsets that ever existed on Nibiru and the best puppet shows from talented actors who travelled the world, many creatures use to visit this place to have picnics or just watch the sun set in the distance or enjoy a puppet show from the puppeteers who came to visit the valley.  
However that was before a terrible accident occured with one of the puppeteers named Rich Strings or rather Puppet Strings suddenly being mugged for her puppets and money by some yellow coated pony who was living on the streets and had no way of supporting herself and as well as a bunch of strange disappearances started happening in the span of over a few days, causing every creature who attempted to visit Sunset Valley to flee in terror for some unknown reason. “Hey, I know things aren’t good right now, but Sun, how was your relationship with Miss Rich at the time of the attack?” I had came here for the sake of exploring the reason behind these disappearances and look for some of my friends who also went there, trying to find the other disappeared ponies and the puppeteer who had been hurt as she started to going mad from being attacked, however I believed I had gotten cold feet and attempted to run like every creature else only to be tripped by a stone buried in the valley’s ground or forcefully knocked out by something else in this place only to wake hours later on the cold ground of the Red Valley. “Sun? What happened to you? And where’s Miss Rich Strings? Is she okay?”  
As I turned away from the red sky and endless valley to face the back of the valley, I caught sight of another pony hovering in the air above the grassy valley probably by the use of wings I couldn’t see, their coat, mane and tail obscured by the dark red sky. “First thing you should know is, I had other employees before you, but they didn’t get too far since they didn’t have enough talent I needed for my shows.” I let out a gasp of surprise at the sight before me as I wasn’t expecting to see another pony out here in the first place, however my surprise turned to relief and happiness as I dashed over to them, rearing up on my hind legs and preparing to grab them by the front forehoof...only to miss and drop to the floor with a hard thud.  
I lay there for a couple of minutes before gaining my composure and standing on my four hooves, my head whipping around to face the pony fully, another gasp escaped my lips as I realized the pony was much farther above the ground than I thought. As I took another step forward and looked up, I realized with horror that the pony wasn’t hovering by the use of wings, but instead by the use of pitch black pieces of thread wrapped around their neck, forehooves, backhooves, forelegs, hindlegs and waist hanging from the sky all of places! “These ponies aren’t ponies to you, they’re puppets and I’m no different, am I?”  
That was bad enough but torment had to be extremely cruel to me, next to the wired pony was another pony then another then another then another standing in a straight line, all held up by black strings in the air being held by an unseen force and staring down at me with black blank eyes as they hovered in front and above the valley and sky, turning them into red shadows against the blood background making them even more terrifying. Below the five ponies, another pony-type creature hovering in the sky, it’s front and back hooves spread out in an X position as hovered below the ponies and above me seemingly flying in the air, it’s torn and feathery wings fluttering gently to keep itself in the air. “My name is Miss Rich Strings, the master of all puppet strings buried deep within a pony.” I gasped in surprise and horror as I stared at this scene before me, my back hooves suddenly acted on their own and tried to move me back to get away from the horrifying scene in front of me, however my front hooves didn’t respond. “What are you doing here, Sun?”  
The thing in the sky must’ve noticed my quick movements and seemed to move closer to face me, it’s once unseen smile and body finally revealed itself. “I’m here for my money, I was supposed to be paid today.” The creature’s body was made up of dirty brown cloth that was rotted and old from years gone by, many stains covered the legs, arms, body and head of the thing. Many I couldn’t identify, but I swore I recognized as blood? “What on Nibiru is on your coat?” Black thread from multiple sewing kits was stitched taut and crudely all around the creature’s legs, arms, waist and neck however some holes still popped out from the monster’s body allowing the old stuffing to fall and hit the ground. These old puppets are falling apart! They’re useless!”  
That was scary enough but that wasn’t enough, as the creature hovered above me, it’s face came closer to give me a better look at it and smiled down at me with a creepy shiteating grin that would give anyone nightmares from the sheer design of the smile. It’s teeth were flat and strong made out of some kind plastic material to give the impression of pony teeth, however this thing wasn’t a pony, not by any stretch of the imagination. Resting on both sides of the creature’s lips were the same black threads wrapped or rather sewn taut around its body to attempt to hold it together in a X position which stretched wider as the creature’s smile grew in length and size as it stared down at me as it seemed to know who I was. “Oh, I think you’re mistaken, this money is mine.”  
It’s eyes were red as the blood sky that stood above me, the thing in front of me and the five ponies above us and it’s sclera black at the night sky that would accompany the pm hours of the day along with the long sleek eyelashes ending at the end of it’s black and red eyes, giving away the gender of this thing. Finally sticking out from the creature’s back appeared to be two sets of wooden hangers made from rotting wood and covered in stains, the ones used for carrying puppets, the one and only hint I needed to know just what this thing was or rather who it once used to be. “No, it’s not, I worked hard for that money, I should be the one to receive it.”  
For the first few seconds, I didn’t move an inch as I was in a mixture of thoughts: one part of my mind telling me to run for my life and get away from this creature as fast as I could and the other wanting to try and figure out what this creature was. It looked familiar to me but I didn’t know where I last saw it or who this was supposed to be. Although my fear of this thing was starting to take my brain and nerves and hamming up my desire to run. But my curiosity was forcing my nerves to settle down just a bit to stay just a little longer and find out what I was staring at. I wanted to raise my front hooves to my head and bang on my own head to force my brain to turn to the better option I had and fast. “Oh honey, you are terribly mistaken, this isn’t your money, it’s mine and if you continue to insist otherwise…” However my mind almost stopped dead in its tracks when the creature suddenly moved closer to me and spoke in an eerily familiar voice. “Hello, Miss Sunflower Shine, remember me?”  
The pony-like creature’s smile seemed to grow wider at my fear and realization of who I was now facing as my frantic mind tried it’s hardest to force my body to either fight or run like hell away from this monster, the “threads” stretched as a result of it’s movements. At this point, my fear had finally won and took over my brian, forcing every nerve in my body work as it ordered. I stood on my hooves and began to run for my life as fast as I could. The creature laughed like a wild banshee as it spread it’s wings suddenly opened more and flapped heavily, causing the grass below to rattle and shake with the force of the wind as it lifted its body back into the blood-red sky before spreading them out farther as it reared its head and back backwards, holding up it’s front hooves. As the creature performed this action, the black strings around it’s front hooves swooped around and grew even longer, dropping down from its body at a pace much faster than any mortal pegasus toward my fleeing body.  
I gasped in horror as the adrenaline sprung to life on it’s own inside my veins, snapping me to action as my legs found more speed to move and get out of there before the fate of those five ponies overtook me. Just as I made it a few feet across the valley, a loud choking sound exited from my lips as I felt a black string wrap taut around my neck, blocking off my airway as the rope yanked me backwards, forcing me to stand on my back hooves as I started to lose the newly gained strength. “NO! Rich, please! Don’t do this! I don’t want to fight you! I only want my money, I need it for my family and my home!”  
I brought my forehooves up to grab at the rope wrapped around my source of oxygen to attempt to force it off me so I could gain the ground to run as far as I could from the dark brown creature. But that was a lost cause as my fore hooves, back hooves, waist, forelegs and back legs got wrapped in the same black string as the creature’s. “You selfish little bitch! I thought you were a good pony who never asked me for anything and always did your good work even after you were fired, but now you come in, demanding I give you my money that I had rightfully earned from you! How dare you selfishly steal what is rightfully mine! Now you will die for what you did!”  
I squirmed and squealed against my bonds as they tightened and pulled me up away from the ground to make it impossible for me to attempt to get free. “No! No! Please don’t kill me!” However the battle I was fighting was already a slowly losing battle as the was no way for me to break free with the use of brute force as the air I once had collected in my lungs for the sake of escaping was being slowly cut off from the sheer force of the black puppet strings that was wrapped around my legs, waist and neck. “You should be happy for I’m finally giving you exactly what you wanted from me this whole time, no more life on the streets. Because you won’t have a life anymore. Doesn’t that sound wonderful? But at that point, it started to not matter as darkness started to fill and overtake my vision, that same darkness I saw when first waking up but this time, the darkness that followed was now going to be permanent as I felt myself slipping from this world forever and soon my body would be used as a puppet for whatever monster caught those other ponies.  
As the loud choking sounds coming from my throat and the wild thrashing from my body started to slowly fade and stop, my eyes started shutting as I started to accept my awful fate once and for all as there was really no other choice in the matter even if I tried to fight, I would fall eventually. As the darkness continued to take over my vision, my feeling of touch faded and soon enough much of my body fell numb, my hooves hung heavily from my body like a load of lead, my heart stopped beating and my breathing stopped. “NO! It doesn’t! I don’t want to die! Please get off me!”  
But seconds before I finally lost consciousness and fell into a black pit of darkness, I caught sight of the pony-like creature hovering above me with it’s evil smile with the set of wooden holders above it’s head as my world finally faded to a deep black. “Oh honey, you shouldn’t have decided to steal me, anypony who does even if it is their first time, they meet the same fate, did you really think I would keep a rebelling puppet alive for betraying me?”  
“So, this employees were just puppets in your gain to get rich and bring yourself to the top of the world and when they were useless and falling apart, you just deposited them! And I was just another one in your game?”  
“Oh yes dear, how else did I get so far in life without doing anything myself, my dear sun puppet?”  
“Finally, I have my revenge for what you did, tearing apart my business and me on that day at Sunset Valley, Sunflower Shine. You won’t destroy me now, I will instead destroy you and make you my new puppet.”

“Oh look who’s back!” The dark brown pegasus with the black mane and tail puppeteer snorted as the bruised and bloodied light yellow earth pony with the white mane and tail suddenly walked up to her in Sunset Valley, a sour look on her face and several black puppet strings tied around her hooves and large cuts still dripping blood from where Rich had attacked her during their struggle for Shine’s money which Rich has taken dishonestly. “Just couldn’t get enough of me and my talent, oh Miss Sunflower Shine, you’re just a riot aren’t you?!”  
The yellow pony didn’t answer, just continued to glare daggers at Rich Strings or rather Puppet Strings as she started to call her after she had spent a while working for her however that wasn’t because the mentioned pegasus liked the young pony’s attitude and good work habits, it was because for more darker reasons. She wasn’t an employer of Rich Strings, she was her puppet like in all her shows.  
“Oh what’s with that face? Are you bitter because I had to let you go after your great work you contributed to my shows because it was no longer needed. Or was it because you just wanted your daily pay like a selfish pony? You know if you were a good pony and just gave up your money to help my shows like all the other ponies, you wouldn’t have been torn apart for your attempt at stealing from me! You were my employee, you know. You had to do your work like a good pony puppet, you shouldn’t have broken your strings and your good relationship with me, cuz’ if you hadn’t, you wouldn’t have ended up on the streets, homeless and alone with nopony el….”  
“I’m not here for your little games,” Sunflower hissed acidly, launching her right front hoof into Rich’s face, knocking her down to the neatly cut grass. Her nose was bleeding rather rapidly from the force of the impact and Sunflower was certain she had broken it, however she wasn’t done with that evil backstabbing pegasus. Sunflower approached some discharged puppet holders with the strings still attached and picked them with her teeth, she looped a knot around Rich’s neck and pulled as tight as she could with all the strength in her broken and beaten body.  
A harsh choking sound from the suffering pegasus below her sounded and Sunflower knew she was doing the job right, however she saw Rich move backwards with her front hooves raised, ready to strike out for her freedom. Sun brought her back hooves down on the brown pegasus’s back, pressing down with all her weight to ensure she didn’t get up. While Rich fruitlessly against the mare’s strong grip, Sun tied the rest of the puppet strings around Rich’s hooves and waist and pulled even tighter then she usually did and dragged the still alive pegasus upwards so she was staring her right in the eye.  
Resting on Sun’s hoof was the same knife Rich had used on her before, she brought it sharply with it’s blade pointed down, aiming for her face. Rich stared at Sun with wide eyes and tried to convey a plea of mercy, but Sun shook her head knowing exactly what Puppet would do to any more useful puppets if she lived. Sun took a deep breath, knowing what she was about to do but reminding herself she was doing for the greater good but it didn’t make this any easier. With one swift motion, she brought the knife down, creaking through Rich’s skull and ending the puppet master once and for all.


	2. Guilt

Sun sighed as she stared at the lifeless body of her former boss, sighing heavily before turning away. She had done quite a number on her turning her from a rich successful pegasus who used others for her own gain to one of the very puppets she had once controlled in her hooves besides the torn fur and bloody skin exposed from the wounds Sun had inflicted on her much like Rich had inflicted on herself. Sun reached down and picked up the body, carrying it over to a tree and stashing it over the branches to hang like a disturbing puppet of her own making and not the puppet master she once was.  
The injured earth pony walked away from the tree, a grim gloomy expression on her face as she thought deeply about what she did. Yes, Rich Strings was a horrible mare who had hurt a lot of ponies and truly did deserve to die, however that didn’t make the actions Sun had taken any easier. In fact, she probably would be scarred for life by what she had done despite the countless times she told herself she did for it to avenge countless lives lost and not just her own.  
However she didn’t smile or cheered loudly when she finally learned the puppet master, Rich Strings, had finally died under her hooves, instead she felt empty inside like someone had taken all her emotions from her and replaced it with molten lead. Sunflower sighed, deciding to attempt to ignore the one she killed and focus on the damage she had taken before coming back to Sunset Valley to finish what she started. She looked a mess, her coat and mane were dyed a dark red, purple and black and not their normal colors made from the numerous cuts and slashes, bruises and the single black eye Rich had given her from the knife and her hooves in their struggle for control of the money.  
Yet despite Rich’s efforts to end her, Sun somehow survived the assault from the pegasus but she didn’t bother cleaning off her injuries or fixing them for that matter. This was because she needed them there for the second part of her plan, the first phase was to end Rich’s life and her goals to kill more ponies and take their money even though she didn’t fully know why Rich carried out these evil plans. The second phase was to expose her for her crimes and the injuries Sun had gotten from her was just the ticket. She had called the police earlier and they would be here soon enough to find both Sun and Rich in the valley, the former injured and the latter dead. Sun would be returned to town, she would be taken to the hospital and given treatment but ponies and the police would be asking questions about what had happened.  
She would give her statement, saying she had been attacked by Rich Strings who was trying to kill her over money and she had only killed her in self defense. Of course, nopony would believe her until she showed them evidence of that happening, there was security footage in Rich’s office that ruled in Sun’s favor but that wouldn’t be the only thing she had as fact, there was plenty of paperwork Sun had stolen from Rich’s office that proved the pegasus was more than what she was.  
Once the police would get hold of this, they would rule out first degree murder and classed this as self defense, she would be sent to jail but only with a lighter sentence. She might’ve committed murder but she could be considered not as bad as Rich Strings who committed to keep her job and the money she had stolen from others who were just puppets in her game. “At least, she won’t cause trouble yet again,” Sun muttered to herself as she approached the end of the park, seeing the familiar sight of the red and blue sirens heading toward the park and toward her, the ruined and rebel puppet who destroyed her puppet master for all her damages.


	3. The Ruined Puppet

I gasped in surprise and horror as I shot up from my sleep, however I halted my panicked state when I realized that I was sleeping in a bedroom, not in the Sunset Valley. However I wasn’t going to be relieved just yet as the possibility of this being set up by Puppet Strings was still in the air. “I’m back in my bedroom?” I asked myself, not believing what I was seeing as the image of the former sunset hotspot was all too real, but the fear of that place was ending as I took several deep breaths. “Was it all a nightmare?” Reality started to set in and with it, relief almost sweeped in, giving me a sense of comfort knowing that my nightmare was finally over.  
I smiled stupidly to myself and jumped right out of my bed and prepared to go to the bathroom, however the familiar tug of strings grabbed my attention. I gasped in horror and looked down at my body and sure enough, the black strings I had seen before were tied taut around my body and were connected to the ceiling. That was horrifying enough but it wasn’t for my tormentor, as I looked up and around the room, the image of the Puppet Master holding onto the strings controlling me looked down at her helpless victim and smiled. “Good morning my ruined puppet, ready to perform?”


End file.
